The Yellow Claw eBook

As for Miss Ryland, her habitual self-confidence seemed
somewhat to have deserted her, and it was almost with
respectful interest that she followed Dunbar’s
examination of a cabman who, standing cap in hand,
completed the party so strangely come together at that
late hour.

“This is what you have said,” declared
Dunbar, taking up an official form, and, with a movement
of his hand warning the taxi-man to pay attention:
“’I, Frederick Dean, motor-cab driver,
was standing on the rank in Little Abbey Street to-night
at about a quarter to nine. My cab was the second
on the rank. A young lady who wore, I remember,
a woolen cap and jersey, with a blue serge skirt,
ran out from the corner of the Square and directed
me to follow the cab in front of me, which had just
been chartered by a dark man wearing a black overcoat
and silk hat. She ordered me to keep him in sight;
and as I drove off I heard her calling from the window
of my cab to another lady who seemed to be following
her. I was unable to see this other lady, but
my fare addressed her as ‘Denise.’
I followed the first cab to Whitechapel Station; and
as I saw it stop there, I swung into Mount Street.
The lady gave me half-a-sovereign, and told me that
she proposed to follow the man on foot. She asked
me if I could manage to keep her in sight, without
letting my cab be seen by the man she was following.
I said I would try, and I crept along at some distance
behind her, going as slowly as possible until she
went into a turning branching off to the right of
Cambridge Road; I don’t know the name of this
street. She was some distance ahead of me, for
I had had trouble in crossing Whitechapel Road.

“’A big limousine had passed me a moment
before, but as an electric tram was just going by
on my off-side, between me and the limousine, I don’t
know where the limousine went. When I was clear
of the tram I could not see it, and it may have gone
down Cambridge Road and then down the same turning
as the lady. I pulled up at the end of this turning,
and could not see a sign of any one. It was quite
deserted right to the end, and although I drove down,
bore around to the right and finally came out near
the top of Globe Road, I did not pass anyone.
I waited about the district for over a quarter-of-an-hour
and then drove straight to the police station, and
they sent me on here to Scotland Yard to report what
had occurred.’

“Have you anything to add to that?” said
Dunbar, fixing his tawny eyes upon the cabman.

“Nothing at all,” replied the man—­a
very spruce and intelligent specimen of his class
and one who, although he had moved with the times,
yet retained a slightly horsey appearance, which indicated
that he had not always been a mechanical Jehu.

“It is quite satisfactory as far as it goes,”
muttered Dunbar. “I’ll get you to
sign it now and we need not detain you any longer.”

“There is not the slightest doubt,” said
Dr. Cumberly, stepping forward and speaking in an
unusually harsh voice, “that Helen endeavored
to track this man Gianapolis, and was abducted by
him or his associates. The limousine was the
car of which we have heard so much"...